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"Bad Star"Written By: t-shirt Disclaimer: Gundam Wing and its characters are
copyright to Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties.
I make no money with this fic. Rating: R Warnings: Post War Cannon, Fluff, angst, sap Pairings: 1x2 Summary: Hiiro sudden return after the war helps bring peace to Duo’s heart.
" Bad Star "
Some people say I was born under a bad star. Can’t say I have any clue where that might have happened since I can’t remember my Mom. Guess the closest thing I had as a parent when I was young was Solo but he was only about four years older than me. I think I was around eight when he died in the plague but he taught me enough to keep the little ones alive. At least until we got caught steeling food from the military stores and they bull dozed the abandoned building we had been living in. We were sent to an orphanage after that. I really liked it there even though the little ones were eventually sent to live with other folks. Sister said that was the way it should be, that they’d have real families to look after them. Didn’t work out for me; guess I was too raw to settle into the obedient role of the good son. After awhile they stopped trying to get me adopted but I liked it better at the church anyway. Wish it would have lasted longer but some asshole soldiers came one day and messed that up, too. I got to see Sister before she died, she gave me Father Maxwell’s cross and Gods blessing whatever that is. Then I met G and he gave me the means to change the world. His name was Deathscythe and for over two years we fought together. Happily, when it was all over, it looked as if mankind had finally learned something. Who knows how long it’ll last but at that moment peace reigned supreme. I met a lot of good people during the wars. Quatre and I have become pretty good friends. We still spend time together whenever we can. He makes a mean cup of tea and there aren’t really too many people that understand the mechanic’s and theories that one must learn to pilot a Gundam. We have common ground. Trowa as well, he’s got a thing for machine’s that feeds my need to tinker. We don’t talk much but I’ve spent hours on end in the Winner garages enjoying some very comfortable silence. Wufei’s more of a sparing partner. Now, there’s an enigma if I ever saw one. Can’t say I understand his reasoning most of the time but he’s one hell of a fighter. Keeps me on my toes. He works in the field with Sally most of the time but I wanted more than just a badge and the next mission spec’s. And Hiiro. No one knows where he went after the second Eve War but I can’t stop hoping he’ll show back up someday. I’d like to say I was unaffected by him but really, no one that meets Hiiro more than once can honestly say that. The guy is no less than extraordinary. I sort of figured he would stay close to Relena but she’s always on the move these days. So, at the age of seventeen, and for the first time in my life, I tucked away a little nest egg provided very kindly by my standby Preventer’s status and signed up for college. Une’s got me on leave so unless there’s another coup or something I was going to be able to just kick back and soak up some of the good life, maybe find out what it’s like to hang out with people that have no idea how a thermal scythe collects negative pullaxle particles to maintain it’s temperature underwater. If I want to talk shop Quatre and Trowa are holed up nearby, it’s one of the reasons I chose Barrington University so as far as I’m concerned those people that choose to pity me and place my life under the category of `unfortunate` aren’t looking at the big picture. I’m alive. Considering the dangerously sharp edge of the roads I have traveled that means I must be one of the luckiest people that ever lived and I wake up every morning with a shit-eating grin on my face just because I’m still here. I suppose it’s that tenacity that’s gotten me through but I would much rather make tomorrow better than sit around sulking about yesterday. Yesterday’s gone and there ain’t shit you can do about it accept learn. I signed up for eight classes over the next two years on the advice of Dean Oakson. My scores were way off the chart of course but knowing how to calculate a trajectory course to maximize the nullification of multiple enemies hasn’t taught me much about social interaction. I make casual friends easily enough but I’ve never had the opportunity to keep them for very long. Even the guy’s are off living their lives, doing what they’ve always done and moving forward. This is what I have chosen though I’ll admit it was my second choice. I would have been happy doing just about anything if Hiiro would have let me go with him. I’m afraid the guy is more important to me than I care to admit. I can’t help it though; just being around him makes me feel like everything is sublimely perfect in the universe. Which is weird because we spent most of the time we’ve know each other busting heads but even then, as long as he was nearby I knew that’s how it was supposed to be. I think Relena felt the same way for a while but she seems to have gotten over it. I see her sometimes when we’re called for security detail during touchy situations and she never asks after him anymore. I still can’t stop thinking about him, wondering if he’s happy and safe, what road he chose to travel and where it might be taking him. How warm his hands are. I can count the number of times he has touched me on one hand. I can do this because I remember each and every incident as vividly as if it had just happened. Took me a while to figure it out but the honest truth is I’ve got it bad for the boy. I don’t know when I fell in love but it’s not altogether a bad feeling to carry around. Barrington is located on a hill over looking the little valley town of Barrington Heights. Quatre has a mountain home up there where he and Trowa spent enough time it had become the closest thing they have to a permanent home. No one here really seems to understand the role we played in the war. Most just treat us with amiable curiosity making it incredibly easy to just lay back and coast. It was an odd feeling to wake up in the morning and have nothing in front of me but blue skies and a campus full of friendly kids. Quatre and Trowa had just left for an extended stay on L3 to oversee some of the restoration work WEI was doing when my eyes opened on the most beautiful day I think I had ever seen. Barrington is a small town dotted with all manor of flowering shrubs and trees that give the place an almost ethereal appearance when spring comes and that day felt like the first day of the first spring of my life. There was just never the time to spare to really stop and enjoy the sunshine or look at the moon. You can’t see the moon from inside a colony, at least none of the areas I had access to and once I made it to Earth the war effort came first. I knew the true value of what we had won when I woke to the smell of sunshine warming the fresh cotton of my pillowcase and heard songbirds singing to the breeze. “Morning, Duo!” “Hey Katie!” I grinned waving as I jogged down the steps of the dorm. Katie’s in my psych class, gal’s got a head for sociological interaction but she doesn’t know shit about human nature. “Duo! Wait! Here’s your chemistry book!” “Oh, yeah!” I smiled doing a three-point turn around on one of the black iron benches that line the sidewalks of the main courtyard. It wasn’t really necessary even though I had been moving pretty fast but the girls get a kick out of shit like that. It worked, she was laughing like a loon when I stopped suddenly in front of her and her friend Berri. “Thanks for letting me borrow it,” Katie smiled handing me my rather tattered and abused text. “No problem,” I replied tucking it away but the odd grin that blossomed on her face caught my eye. “The margin notes were very … interesting,” she giggled doing that mutual nudge and laugh thing girls tend to do. “Oh, umm… shit.” Not the most intelligent response but some of those notes were on the dangerous side. “Did you understand any of it?” “Are you kidding?” Berri laughed rolling her eyes. “Good.” “Why do you even go to class?” Katie asked. “It’s interesting,” I shrugged and it was. There were tons of little tid bits and rules in those books I had spent a good deal of my life learning to break. “Hi, Duo!” I waved back to Emma and Charlotte. Emma and I had domestic engineering together. “Shit, I’m late. See you later,” I smiled turning my toes toward building C. “Bye!” she smiled. “And thanks again!” I waved again as now I had to really move to make it to Cratchet’s sci/comp class on time. It was much to pretty a day to start it by pissing off my biggest fan. The guy had it in for me from day one. It’s not that he hates me or anything but he’s got this bad habit of talking down to his students like he’s superior because he knows the material already. Bitch is I’m better than him and he just really doesn’t deal with the competition all that well. But he makes me think and I like that so he’s stuck with me. “Hi, Duo!” “Hey, Marcie!” She’s in my global management workshop. “Are you going to the game Saturday, Duo?” “Front and center!” I told Michelle in passing. Personal training. Tom yelped when I smacked his locker on the way by and scared his girlfriend, Laura, out of the daze he had been putting her in. “Asshole!” “Stop snogging in the halls!” I laughed moving on. “Good day, Mr. Maxwell,” Cratchet sighed heavily though no one was watching his rather theatrical response to my two minute tardiness. “Hey, Cratchet!” I replied with my usual charm but he appeared less than bedazzled. “It’s Craw-shey,” he told me again as I took my seat among my now snickering peers. The laugher died fairly quickly when he informed us there would be another pop quiz that day. The man really had a massive superiority complex but it was no sweat off my back. I took my time because if I finished too quickly it just drew unnecessary attention, an old habit that has kept me alive and under cover more times that not. Dillon sits to my left and tries to copy my answers so I drew him a picture of a big hairy ass on my scrap paper that sent him in into convulsive laugher. Cratchet eyed him suspiciously but held his seat until the door suddenly opened and my world ground to a complete and utter stop when Hiiro Yui walked through it. There was nothing but white noise between my ears for as long as it took him to go to Cratchet’s desk and hand him a slip of paper then the rushing roar of the world suddenly exploded in my head. My first thought? He’s here. Right here in front of me. The second? What in the hell does he want? His presence could only mean one thing; he needed my help for some reason, a mission perhaps. Maybe Une had finally found him and wanted us to pair up again but that was just fine with me. I’d rather be anywhere in the universe with Hiiro than everywhere without him. His eyes found me instantly and I felt for a moment as if I might zone out again as I waited for the Professor to call me out but he stood instead and spoke something to Hiiro indicating the class whereupon my old partner nodded and moved toward me. It took every ounce of control I possess to keep my heart from breaking my ribs as he approached, his gaze locked on mine until he stopped beside my desk but I was questioning whether or not my legs would hold me just yet. Everything changed when he turned a cross eye on Dillon causing him to retreat to another desk without word of protest before slipping in beside me just as pretty as you please. “Mr. Maxwell, perhaps since you have nothing better to do you would be so generous as to bring our new student up to date?” I barely heard Cratchet’s voice but I grabbed the opportunity to talk with Hiiro with both hands. “What’re you doing here?” I whispered leaning close and laying my textbook on his desk. “Attending class,” he replied gazing at the redundancy on the pages before him. “Hiiro…” “This will be an interesting subject,” he cut me off skimming the rest of the book and I had no doubt he’d just taken in its entire contents. “We need to talk.” “There is time,” he informed me and I’m afraid I forgot what it was I had wanted to talk to him about when he flashed me this little cockeyed grin. I had never seen that grin before. It left me feeling very odd but there was no way to gain any information safely in the middle of class so I was forced to wait it out. The clock, of course, decided to take a nap for no more reason than I wanted to get out of there so I was left to ponder his extremely unlikely arrival. It had to be a mission of some sort, there was just no other reason for Hiiro to suddenly pop up so my mind went from `he’s here` to `what resources are available to conduct a mission` pretty quick. Barrington had a decent communications net but we’d have to break into the dean’s office to find the access codes. No problem there though I didn’t like deceiving Oakson, he had been a good friend so far. My hand was scratching out calculations on how long it would take to infiltrate the nearest spaceport in case we needed off planet transportation when Hiiro dropped a small slip of paper on my desk. When I glanced over at him he was still wearing that strange smirk that was starting to send a weird prickling along my skin so I turned back to the note to find it contained a single word. Relax. I almost fell out of my chair as I was taken by a sudden giggle fit that called the attention of the entire class. The world had just come to an end. Hiiro had told me to relax! And… he was laughing. It was a quite little thing that he was apparently trying hard to tame under the disapproving scowl on Cratchet’s face but it tugged mercilessly at the corners of his mouth until I thought I might sprout feathers and crow. Something was very different about my old partner and I suddenly couldn’t wait for the end of class. “Professor!” Everyone stopped and looked up at me like I had grown a horn on my head as I took Hiiro by the arm and stood. “Looks like Hiiro’s schedule is messed up,” I smiled into the shadow of death that suddenly fell over Cratchet’s angular features. “I’m finished so I’m gonna take him down to admissions and get it straightened out.” “It can wait until after class,” the man ground through gritted teeth but we were already moving toward the door. “No point missing another class when there’s time to do it now,” I reasoned waving jovially as we ducked out the door. Hiiro toddled along behind me allowing me to pull him down the hall where a gal I vaguely recognized from my biology class watched us curiously until I pulled him into an empty classroom. “What in the hell’re you doing here?” I beamed unable to mask the full extent of the enthusiasm coursing through me. “Is everyone alright? Relena isn’t in trouble again is she?” “No,” he chuckled wrenching his arm free of my grasp. “Then why are you here?” “The school I was attending didn’t offer everything I need,” he replied calmly. “And Barrington does?” I laughed. It’s a small school, I couldn’t imagine what it had that would appeal to someone of Hiiro’s knowledge. Then again, I was there but that was because… Was he here because of the guys too? “You mean you’re really here to take classes?” He flashed me that smile with the nod and my damn knees went weak. It seemed a little far fetched since it was Hiiro I was talking to but I couldn’t shake the hope that seeded inside me that maybe, just maybe he had discovered he needed us, too. “Looks like we’ve got some time to kill,” he pointed out. “Feel like showing me around?” Would I?! I think it may have perhaps been the happiest feeling of my life to walk out of that building with Hiiro beside me, sunshine in the air and not a mobile suit in sight. We skipped our next lesson for no more reason than we were just having so much fun catching up. He had gone the same route I had choosing to immerse himself in the social blog. The best place to do that was college where we could be around people closer to our own age. We should have been in high school but we sort of skipped over adolescence so this was a much more reasonable option. His first choice was to take advanced subjects at some of the worlds foremost universities but from what he told me being an ex-Gundam pilot wasn’t as readily accepted among the politically elite. Seems like he spent more time debating militant operations with instructors and parents than interacting with the kids. It didn’t come as a huge surprise that he had some trouble fitting in because I remembered vividly the times we spent together in boarding schools. No matter how hard I tried he just couldn’t connect with the general population. He refused to regress back to their state of reality going so far as to try and educate them and bring them closer to ours. It never worked of course, scared the shit out of them but it never helped them feel kindred toward him. Something felt altogether different now. I spent the rest of the day wishing it was over because he had different afternoon subjects than I did. I couldn’t concentrate thinking about where he had been and why he had turned up here of all places. He said Quatre and Trowa didn’t know yet. Wufei was on assignment with Sally so he had no idea and even Relena was clueless to his return. I suggested he should call her but he reminded me she was at a summit on L4 so it would be a redundant effort. Man, there was no doubt in my mind she was going to lay a brick when she found out. He didn’t seem too anxious to shout it to the world though so it crossed my mind that maybe he still wanted to lay low but that was cool with me, I’d have him allll to myself for a while. He was waiting for me, or that’s what I told myself when I found him on a bench reading outside my last class of the day. Damn but he looked good sitting there under a big elm, dapple shadows cast along his skin, his eyes quiet and steady as they caressed the pages… “Are you cold?” “Hm?” Shit. I had to shake off the chills and recompose myself. “Naw. You wanna get something to eat?” “Sure,” he smiled tucking his book away with that one-step fluidity that never fails to catch my eye. “Great.” Yep, I still had it bad. “Hi, Duo.” “Hey, Katie,” I smiled when she and Berri stopped to speak to us. “Who’s your friend?” Berri asked with very little effort to mask her obvious interest in my old partner. “Oh, um,” damn it. I really didn’t want to go there just yet. “Hiiro. This is Katie and …” “Stawberri,” she smiled using her full name as if it were the sweetest morsel known to man. I had to grin because he totally missed it. “We were just going over to the rec room,” Katie interjected hopefully. “You guys want to join us?” Berri added batting her long, dark lashes temptingly and I almost laughed out loud when Hiiro looked like he might offer to wash the dust out of them for her. “We were just leaving,” Hiiro declined. Berri looked so crestfallen I had to step in. “Maybe we can hook up some other time,” I consoled urging Hiiro down the path. “See ya.” “Bye,” Katie smiled offering a supportive bump of her shoulder against Berri’s as we left. We ended up at a local pub call the Barbell. There’s an eatery and small bar downstairs and a gym on the upper level I sometimes use when the fitness center in the basement at the dorm is crowded. I was having the time of my life just talking with him about the campus and our subjects. Cratchet got the low end of a good number of my jokes because Hiiro was laughing right out loud whenever I told one. It was like breathing in the first fresh breath of spring to see him so open and full of life. I was head over heels, stone cold in love all over again before we finished eating. “Trowa has been helping Quatre then?” he asked when our friends came up in conversation again. “There’re sort of inseparable these days,” I chuckled. “They were good together.” “Together being the key word,” I smiled watching for his reaction. I had no idea if he understood our friends had become lovers after the war. From the way he paused I figured he hadn’t known. “No wonder Trowa took up the restoration effort,” he snorted softly. “He found his calling,” I agreed. “I’m glad to hear Quatre never gave up.” Maybe he knew more than I thought. “What?” he smiled curiously because I had this sappy sort of grin just knowing he approved of our friends relationship. “I dunno,” I shrugged feeling a bit of heat color my cheeks. “It’s just nice to have you back.” The look on his face made me snort softly because I had never seen Hiiro gape before. “You know, the teams back together,” I clarified. “We’re whole again.” He was quite for a time abandoning the remnants of his dinner while he thought. “You really missed me.” “`Course we did!” I laughed but it died quickly when I realized he really hadn’t thought we would. “Hey, man,” I smiled laying a hand over his on the table. “You’re part of the only family we’ve got.” I couldn’t tell what he was thinking as he sat there staring into my eyes but I was intensely aware of his fingers closing around mine. “You want to run up to Quatre’s and check out their security system?” he suddenly smiled. “What?” was the best I could come up with but he wasn’t going to give me time to catch up as he stood, dropped a wad of cash on the table and grabbed his coat. “You getting soft?” he grinned and I felt the hackles on the back of my neck stand up. “Hey, you don’t have to…” “Looser buy’s the beer at the game,” he challenged stepping out the door and I did a mad scramble to catch up with him. He was still a fast little shit, he was thirty yards down the road before I made it out of the parking lot but this was my town. It wasn’t like I didn’t keep in shape either so if he thought he was in for an easy run he was going to be sorely surprised. I should have known better though, Hiiro never does anything that isn’t well planned. There was no way I was going to catch up to him if I stayed on the road so I slipped on my shades which just happened to be the same sort I wore during the war and have night vision encoded into the lenses and dove into the brush. The Winner estate was on a big hill over looking the valley which meant the roads leading there wound all over creation. My way was considerably steeper and harder to climb but if I kept a decent pace I would make it in half the time. I hadn’t done anything like that in so long, just running alone the deer paths under the rising moon, knowing that at the end of my journey lay a reward much finer than any championship cup. I’d win the right to gloat over a win against the perfect soldier. I have no idea why it didn’t cross my mind that he would do the same thing but I didn’t catch sight of him until we came out on the last section of road below the house. We were winded, pumped up like a couple of cocks ready for a fight and determined to win the race. I had the upper hand though because I had come out twenty yards closer to the gates. I knew he’d be right on my heels when I bolted, knew he’d gain ground because although his legs are shorter than mine he has the power to push himself faster than anyone I have ever seen. I knew he was right behind me, could almost feel his breath on the back of my neck and was just about to lunge for the gate when he tackled me and we went down in a tumble, his arms tucking tightly around me as we rolled with the momentum and finally came to rest two feet from the front gate. “Don’t touch… the gate,” he panted. It took me a minute to get it because we had stopped with him lying on top of me, his arms still wrapped around me protectively to keep me from getting road rash when he took me down. “The alarm,” I finally snapped recalling we hadn’t come up here for a social visit. Quatre and Trowa were on L3. He nodded and chuckled as he disentangled himself from me and I suddenly felt sort of cold all over at his absence. “Why… are we doing this again?” I asked dusting the road gravel off my pants. “They’re family, right?” he grinned popping the cover off the gate box where he began the bypass. “We should look after their home while they’re away,” he grinned indicating the alarm had been reset and it was clearly my turn. “I don’t think breaking an entering constitutes `looking after` their place,” I chuckled pulling my lock picks from my braid. “How else would we check inside?” he reasoned and I felt something swell in my chest. I think it was adrenalin but there wasn’t really any reason for it other than Hiiro’s suddenly close proximity. “Besides,” he added smiling proudly at me as the gate swung free, “It’ll be fun to see the look on their faces when we call them from their own living room.” “Are you on something?” I laughed following him inside. “No,” he returned and I swear he danced a step backward and smiled up at the sky just like any other teenage kid might do as he added, “For the first time in my life… I’m not.” I didn’t have to ask what he meant. I had meant it as a joke but his reply had been anything but and he was right. For the first time ever we weren’t on the run, on the edge or on our way into battle. There were a billion stars in the sky that night but not a single one of them shown half as brightly as Hiiro’s eyes. He had found his peace and I loved him all the more for it. We decided to lay it on pretty thick when we called L3 because the house’s security network sucked rocks. I didn’t even have to scale a wall, just walked right in the front door. Everything was as it should be regardless, the paintings there were nothing special enough to call the attention of burglars, the furnishings moderate for a house of its size. Hiiro set up the call on the vid in the living room while I scrounged around in the kitchen and found us a left over loaf of bread that had been missed and a bottle of wine I didn’t even want to know the age of tucked away in a cupboard. “You got ‘em?” I asked when I returned to find Hiiro speaking into the interspatial communicator. “They’re patching us through now,” he informed me asking, “What’s this?” when I set a glass of wine in his hand. “Old,” I replied ignoring his raised brow as he sniffed it in favor of examining the ready bar on the screen. “Sir,” the operator smiled popping into view. “You’re party requires some form of identification. Would you like to state your name?” I got that chill again when this eeevil little smile curled his lips and he replied, “Patch this through.” His fingers flew over the keys of the com’s board punching in an old code that made me giggle so hard I tasted wine in my nose. “Sir?” the operator questioned incomprehensively but she obediently sent the message when he smiled and nodded. It took less than ten seconds. “Hiiro! Allah be praised! It is you! Trowa! Trowa come see! Are you well? We can get to a more secure site if needed but it’ll take a few minutes.” “Hey, Quat,” I laughed tipping my glass to him before taking a sip. “Duo?” “The wayward son returns,” Trowa smiled stepping in behind his lover, his hand resting with great familiarity on the blond boy’s shoulder. I saw the slight twitch of Hiiro’s lips at the use of the word `son` and wished I could thank Trowa for his insightful choice of phrase. “Are you two all right?” Quatre was compelled to ask again. “That code…” “Relax,” Hiiro chuckled taking a big gulp of his wine. “I just wanted to make Duo laugh.” Oh, wow. “No ones trying to blow up the world,” I informed Quatre though the code had been an old intelligence request. “I understand congratulations are in order,” Hiiro smiled setting us all back a couple of centuries. “Congratulations?” Quatre asked distractedly adding a quiet, “Is that our living room?” I really thought Hiiro was going to make a big deal out of their hooking up until he smiled and said, “The restoration. Your efforts have been making the headlines all over Earth.” “I suppose they would,” Quatre nodded. “Duo?” “Your security system sucks by the way,” I interjected refilling our glasses. “Well, it wasn’t meant to guard national treasure,” Trowa chuckled. “You live here,” Hiiro countered bringing a shocked expression to Quatre’s face that made me chuckle in my wine. “With your permission I’ll see that it is updated to something more acceptable before your return.” “I…” Quatre began tossing a helpless glance at his lover. “If you insist,” Trowa nodded. “But what are you doing in Barrington Heights?” Quatre finally had the mind to ask. “He enrolled,” I spouted happily feeling the warmth of the wine spreading throughout my chest. “Seriously?” was Trowa’s response. “So, you’ll be staying?” his lover smiled. “So long as I am not needed elsewhere,” he replied with the same answer any of us would have given. The conversation turned to subjects Hiiro and I had already covered. Where he had been and why he had chosen to return, how he was and if he had contacted Relena. I let him do most of the talking as backward as it felt but he was doing a fine job and I was quiet content to just kick back and listen to the sound of his voice. I suppose it was the melodic tenor combined with the wine that lulled me into a daze because I didn’t notice Quatre flashing covert glances at me until it was much too late to deny my attraction for Hiiro and my cheeks warmed over when it finally clicked that he had my number. “Where are you staying?” Quatre asked flashing this little grin my way that set my ears on fire. “You’re welcome to stay at our place,” Trowa finished the thought. “That would be nice,” Hiiro replied. “Thank you.” “We’ll be home the last week in June,” Quatre informed him. “It would be wonderful if you could both come and spend some time with us then.” “The Winner Resort, huh?” I chuckled. “Sounds like a great vacation spot to me.” “I look forward to it,” Hiiro added draining the last of his wine as the conversation turned to more mundane matters again. “It’s good to see them so happy,” he added once the call had been terminated. “Yeah,” I nodded stretching out as the night, the wine and the warmth of Hiiro’s presence relaxed me body and soul. “It’s nice to see a smile on the faces of the people you care about.” He grew quiet causing me to crack an eye to see why and my heart skipped a beat when I caught him looking at me. “Duo?” he began and for the first time since I had known him he seemed at a loss for words. Usually he speaks very little but what he says is well spoken and concise. His hesitation was making it hard to breathe. “I wonder…” “Yes?” I prompted not daring to hope for what my heart was hoping for. “Why…?” “Just spit it out,” I chuckled sitting up to face him. “I recall,” he began. “During the war. Why didn’t you ever give up on me?” That one was easy. “Because I love you,” I told him unashamed and felt the thrill of watching his eyes light up. “We all love you. You must realize that by now.” My excitement grew when that light suddenly dimmed with those words. Was it my imagination or was he indicating I was… important to him? “You tried to find me,” he stated and I nodded. “I wanted to know you were all right,” I explained. “Even Relena stopped wondering about me after a while,” he went on. “But you…” “I’m sort of hard to shake,” I chuckled. “Why?” he asked again. “I… told you,” I replied though my voice sounded funny because my throat was closing up. “Because you love me,” he repeated and suddenly he was a lot closer than he had been a moment before. “Y… yeah,” I nodded feeling fear and apprehension, joy and rapture and every hair on my body stand up and vibrate as I gazed into his eyes. “But what does that mean?” he asked softly. “D…damn,” I whispered unable to comprehend what was happening. “Does it mean I can do this without fear of rejection?” he asked moving over top of me and I felt my bones shiver as I slid down into the couch. “You can do anything you want,” I told him though the words sounded foreign in my mouth. “Anything?” he smiled but I was having trouble forming a reply with him hovering just over my lips like that so I mustered up some nerve and nodded just before he kissed me. It was during that kiss that it all came together. His sudden return, enrolling in Barrington, our parallel goals, his sitting outside my last class and insisting we come up here. “Hey,” I whimpered pushing him back enough to talk in spite of his continued efforts to reclaim my mouth. “What?” “Did you just seduce me?” “Well, I’m trying if you’d just be quiet and cooperate,” he chuckled kissing my chin. I couldn’t believe it. The whole time he had been attracted to me as well and I never knew. No wonder he never hooked up with Relena. It made perfect sense that he had gone away and even more that he had ended up coming back when he realized how much I cared for him but I still needed to know. “Why?” Honestly, I swear I saw the heavens open in his eyes when he smiled down at me and brushed my bangs back as he kissed me soundly and echoed the feeling I held in my heart. “Because… I love you.” Some people say I was born under a bad star, that my life has been one tragedy after another but considering where I ended up I say I’m the luckiest man alive. owari :)
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